“We need courage and honesty to do this”

Interviewer: What distinguishes spiritual from sexual abuse?

Dr. Thomas Arnold (Director of the Catholic Academy in the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen): I think we have to look in two directions: One is that spiritual abuse works very strongly with fear, dependence, distress, with the surrender of one's own autonomy, and all of this is packed with the horizon of transcendence, God, under the cloak of Christianity.

That's often a run-up to sexual abuse. We have to look at this again quite specifically, especially as a religious community, especially as a church. We have noticed this in the last decade: we have an enormous moral drop in the case of sexual abuse. Everything that happened there, was covered up, is bad. But we have also seen that this can also happen in other institutions. In the case of spiritual abuse, we have to say quite clearly: This is a peculiarity of religious communities, of religions, because the transcendent, God, is drawn upon in order to legitimize one's own power. And that is why we as a church need to be particularly sensitive here.

Interviewer: There is no real definition at all that one could refer to, for example, in legal or canonical terms. So I can't sue anyone for spiritual abuse. Would there need to be such a definition?

Arnold: There you can see exactly the difficulty, which is why we are doing this conference. At the moment we have many new departures. I just remind you of the book by Doris Wagner. Klaus Mertes has already addressed this ie, as has Inge Tempelmann. Everyone has already dealt with the ie. But we do not yet have a clear definition at the national level or as a church, clear criteria with which we can also say, subsequently: We are working on these points, we are carrying out prevention with these points. And with these points, we may also punish those who have been guilty. That's why the approach of the conference is to look at it from three different perspectives, first psychologically, psychologically, medically, then theologically, spiritually and thirdly legally and under constitutional law as well as under church law: How do we make progress in developing a definition and criteria within the church?. And that's why we need to understand: It is a point of view. It is a beginning. I am firmly convinced that the Church's approach to spiritual abuse is a marathon, and we are just getting started. I hope that the German Bishops' Conference will continue to address this ie at its plenary meeting in Dresden in February 2021. I also hope, to be honest, that with the Synodal Way we will also continue to address this ie. So that we take action on this marathon ourselves as a church and say, "It's our ie. We take it on. We need courage and honesty to tackle the subject".

Interviewer: You have already mentioned it. You are a member of the plenary assembly of the Synodal Way, the reform dialogue of the Catholic Church in Germany. The phrase spiritual abuse does not appear in the underlying MHG study, which revealed thousands of cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Is this not a topic for the synodal path??

Arnold: The MHG study was an occasion that brought the Synodal Way into being in the first place. But if I look closely, at the forums that deal with the four topics, especially women in office, but also abuse of power as a second point, also priestly existence today. This scratches extremely the question of the spiritual and mental abuse or better said, the correct handling in the pastoral care. And that's why I sincerely hope that in the papers that will be adopted at the end, the question of good conduct in pastoral care, which prevents as far as possible in structures that we enable spiritual abuse within our institution, that that is the topic. That this is not only reflected, but in the end is also reflected in the papers. The Synodal Way must address the ie of spiritual abuse as lay and clerical leaders.

Interviewer: Let's still look abroad. For example, there is a study by missio that reveals how much women religious, for example, suffer from spiritual abuse in many countries. Are also our relief organizations challenged to do something about this??

Arnold: I worked for a few years in the relief organization. I have great respect for the work that missio, Misereor, Sternsinger, Adveniat and the other aid organizations do and thus make aid abroad possible. In the last few years, we have seen a very strong development towards the concept of partnership. I think we have to be careful that we as the church in Germany are not perceived as the ones on whom the whole being is supposed to be healed, as the old quotation from the 19th century says. Century. But that we sensitize in partnership for the topic, also in other countries, in France, Austria, they are in similar processes as we are here in Germany. But we also need to sensitize people in Africa, Asia and South America to the fact that there are power structures within the church that are unhealthy because they restrict the freedom of the individual. And of course promotion can be one thing. But above all, we need to work together, to raise each other's awareness. A study is a first start. I hope and wish for the aid agencies to take this ie into the world, to discuss it and also to look in partnership for ways to deal with it in the different continents, in the different life situations, also in the different experiences with church.

The interview was conducted by Dagmar Peters.